NASCAR took an unprecedented step Saturday morning at Texas Motor Speedway when it parked Kyle Busch for his remaining two races for “aggressive driving” in Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race.
Even though NASCAR has a small history of parking drivers across two series’ lines for egregious actions, a penalty affecting all three national series has never been levied.
The penalty also was unique in that on Friday night, Busch was driving for his own Kyle Busch Motorsports team, while earlier Friday, Busch qualified Joe Gibbs Racing cars 17th for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race and second for Saturday’s Nationwide race. NASCAR.com
NASCAR president Mike Helton said more penalties are possible and will be considered Monday.
Busch and Hornaday made contact on Lap 13 during Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race. Both trucks were damaged, and a caution came out. During the caution, Busch accelerated into the back of Hornaday’s truck and sent him into the wall.
Hornaday, in third place in the championship point standings, couldn’t return to the race because of the damage from the hit to the wall. Fort Worth Star Telegram
“The responsibility that over the past two or three seasons we’ve given back to the drivers came I think with a very clear understanding that there could be a line that got crossed,” Helton said. “And as annoying as the comments that I’ve made personally in the past about we’ll know it when we see it might have been, we saw it last night.”
Busch left the NASCAR hauler through an exit away from where media were without comment. Gibbs confirmed that Michael McDowell would run the No. 18 Toyota for Sunday’s Cup race, while Denny Hamlin would take the wheel in Saturday’s Nationwide race.
“When you own something and you’re the owner, you’re responsible,” Gibbs said Saturday morning. “I take full responsibility for it.” USA Today
After the incident on friday, NASCAR immediately parked Busch and continued that process Saturday morning by invoking Section 9-12 in its rule book, which states, “A NASCAR Supervisory Official may direct a Competitor to cease competition, to leave the racing premises, or to bring the car to the pit and/or garage area for a specified number of laps, and/or a specified time penalty, for the balance of the Race, or future NASCAR Races, if it is necessary to do so in order to promote the orderly conduct of the NASCAR Event(s). Such a directive will be given only in extraordinary circumstances, as determined by the NASCAR Supervisory Officials. It will not be deemed or construed to be a disqualification, suspension or other “penalty” within the meaning of Section 12 and is not appealable under that Section.” NASCAR.com
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